After years of working on games and projects here and there and not always finishing them, and sometimes never posting them at all. With the new year's start, I wanted to really push myself to get things done. It's currently 4:30 am on the East Coast as I write this. I had never heard of TTRPGs ever being smaller than a one page. Nano, is a new term to me in that regard. So when I saw the game jam for 36 word RPGs I was as terrified as I was intrigued.

How could someone make a game in even less than a page's worth of words?

Was the question that needed to be answered. I had to search itch to find others' works to see where to even start. I knew with the theme of Nature/Growth I wanted to use it to its fullest extent while still being out of the box. I knew I wanted something impactful and emotional and I think I did just that. A game that is about the emotional journey that trauma and life throws at us and our growth from that. I am so proud of this project, of sitting and getting it all done from concept to finish all in one night. 

I've even expanded on it already creating a zine supplement to add the pieces I really wanted but needed to respect the 36 word limit. I had just got done rewatching For Colored Girls movie (that was originally inspired by the broadway play and poem by Ntozake Shange. Her 1976 poem 'for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf') and I knew  I wanted something that felt like Lady in Brown/Crystal Wallace's breath she takes after she hits rock bottom. I wanted to create that release of emotion. 

I believe Overgrowth will be beneficial as a theatre exercise, as a yoga warm-up/ender, as an interpretative dance warm up, I even think it could be used in therapy. Personal or professional. I'm aware it's not something you'll be pulling off the shelf for your Thursday night D&D session however I think it's a valuable piece for interpective comfort to remind yourself always how far you've come.

And I'm proud of you. Proud of us for still being here even when it feels like we shouldn't. When it feels like giving up would just be easier. In the year of 2025 I need you to not give anyone the satisfaction of being the reason you don't pull through. Continue to fight and reclaim the land with your vines and your roots. Break free with your flowers and your leaves. And enjoy the stillness in the life you still have.

XOXO,

Anjali